Bikes safely packed away | in a train Arrival at Gare de l'est | Paris | Paris I love this little street - very colorful | Paris Le miroir d'eau (water mirror) along the promenade | Bordeaux | Bordeaux | Bordeaux | Bordeaux | Bordeaux I was amused by the stick figures | Bordeaux Entrance to the Esplanade Quinconces | Bordeaux Entrance to the Esplanade Quinconces | Bordeaux | Bordeaux Monument aux Girondins | Bordeaux Downtown Bordeaux | Bordeaux Place de la Comèdie | Bordeaux | Bordeaux Place de la Bourse | Bordeaux Place de la Bourse | Bordeaux Place de la Bourse | Bordeaux The lovely bike trail heading out of Arcachon | Arcachon The lovely bike trail heading out of Arcachon | Arcachon mmm... moules frites | Arcachon Looking towards Arcachon | Arcachon Looking towards the big dune | Arcachon | Arcachon | Arcachon | Arcachon Ready for the first day on the trail! | Bordeaux Bordeaux as ssen from the bridge leaving town | Bordeaux This was the lovely trail we rode on for the first 55km | Cénac One of the many lovely village churches along the way | Lignan-de-Bordeaux Mmmm... warm goat cheese toasts on salad | Créon Aquitaine landscape | Créon Aquitaine landscape | Créon Aquitaine landscape | Créon | La Sauve Wine country! | La Sauve | La Sauve | Sauveterre-de-Guyenne The power bar didn't quite make us powerful enough... | Sauveterre-de-Guyenne | Loubens Looking back on the last (of many) of the afternoon's hills | Saint-Sève Arrival in La Réole | La Réole We loved our room! | La Réole We loved our room! | La Réole Garden scenes | La Réole Garden scenes | La Réole Ginger, the 8-week old St. Bernard puppy | La Réole What knockers! | La Réole Our gite | La Réole Downtown La Réole, a happening place... | La Réole Oh, yum, melon filled with muscat as appetizer | La Réole The view from our room | La Réole This derelict house was complete full of pigeons | La Réole Parish church | La Réole I walked through the benedictine monastery adjacent to the church | La Réole I walked through the benedictine monastery adjacent to the church | La Réole | La Réole Scenes from our gite | La Réole | La Réole Crossing the Garonne | La Réole Crossing the Garonne | La Réole We meet the canal - our first lock | Fontet Canal scenes | Meilhan-sur-Garonne | Montpouillan Hoping for handouts | Le Mas-d'Agenais If you look carefully you can see how flat my front tire is... | Le Mas-d'Agenais | Puch-d'Agenais | Feugarolles Our late but exceptionally tasty dinner | Agen Our late but exceptionally tasty dinner | Agen Our late but exceptionally tasty dinner | Agen There was a certain charm in the shabbiness of the facades | Agen Always enjoy looking at food | Agen Always enjoy looking at food | Agen Cool dor | Agen I'm not quite sure what this statue represented | Agen Also an interesting sculpture | Agen Inside the cathedral | Agen Inside the cathedral, known for its double nave | Agen The canal crosses the River Garonne - we had ridden across the previous evening | Agen Looking over the aqueduct on the way out of town | Agen Vera was having a bit of troulb finding something in her pack | Saint-Romain-le-Noble Our first picnic | Saint-Romain-le-Noble Canal scenes | Lamagistère Canal scenes | Lamagistère | Lamagistère Possible rental? | Golfech Riding, studying the scenery | Golfech Here they had built an open air stage across the river | Valence The rotating bridge at work | Moissac Making the most of the beautiful early-evening light | Moissac Making the most of the beautiful early-evening light | Moissac The main shopping street after business hours | Moissac We made a morning visit to the abbey and cloisters | Moissac We made a morning visit to the abbey and cloisters | Moissac We made a morning visit to the abbey and cloisters | Moissac We made a morning visit to the abbey and cloisters | Moissac We made a morning visit to the abbey and cloisters | Moissac We made a morning visit to the abbey and cloisters | Moissac We made a morning visit to the abbey and cloisters | Moissac We made a morning visit to the abbey and cloisters | Moissac We made a morning visit to the abbey and cloisters | Moissac Our bikes looks awfully small compared to the abbey | Moissac The canal crosses the Tarn | Moissac The canal crosses the Tarn | Moissac Picnic pause! | Escatalens Here they pull the boats up with two engines | Montech Drink and feet-cooling pause | Lespinasse At the end of the Canal de Garonne / start of the Canal du Midi | Toulouse A spiffed up version of the salad with warm chevre toasts | Toulouse I can't remember if it was cheese or meat inside | Toulouse Place du Capitole | Toulouse Cathedral St. Etienne | Toulouse Cathedral St. Etienne | Toulouse Cathedral St. Etienne | Toulouse Cathedral St. Etienne | Toulouse Cathedral St. Etienne | Toulouse Cathedral St. Etienne | Toulouse Cathedral St. Etienne | Toulouse Grave of Pierre Paul de Riquet, architect of the Canal de Midi | Toulouse | Toulouse St. Sernin | Toulouse St. Sernin | Toulouse St. Sernin | Toulouse St. Sernin | Toulouse St. Sernin | Toulouse St. Sernin | Toulouse | Toulouse The Canal du Midi runs right through the middle of town | Toulouse Along the first stretch the trail was nicely paved | Toulouse Along the first stretch the trail was nicely paved | Ramonville-Saint-Agne Typical lock-keeper's house - the sign on the front lists the distances to the previous and dext locks | Ayguesvives In the Haut-Garonne region there were still nice informational signs | Ayguesvives We stopped for a short pause in the cooling shade | Ayguesvives We stopped for a short pause in the cooling shade | Ayguesvives Can't believe this was a "Bottin Gourmand"-listed restaurant | Gardouch We just didn't have time to stop and explore every charming town along the way | Canal du Midi After days of being spoiled by paved trails, we were shocked by this first rough stretch. Little did we know what we were in for... | Canal du Midi First of several Thomas Jefferson tributes I saw | Montferrand Several kilometers of this is VERY enervating | Canal du Midi | Mas-Sainte-Puelles | Canal du Midi The famous bassin | Castelnaudary Vera was fascinated by this rather run-down town | Castelnaudary | Castelnaudary Chez Sarah, the sight of my sleepless night | Castelnaudary Collegiate church of St. Michel | Castelnaudary Collegiate church of St. Michel | Castelnaudary Collegiate church of St. Michel | Castelnaudary "You are now taking your life in your hands..." | Castelnaudary The 3-tiered lock | Castelnaudary Oooh, an allée! | Canal du Midi I had to stop and take sunflower pictures | Canal du Midi One of the four signs we saw in the 4 days on the Canal du Midi | Canal du Midi The countryside is looking more Mediterranean | Canal du Midi | Canal du Midi As the days got hotter, the tree coverage seemed to thin out... | Canal du Midi g | Canal du Midi | Carcassonne First sightings of La Cité | Carcassonne First sightings of La Cité | Carcassonne St. Nazaire | Carcassonne St. Nazaire | Carcassonne St. Nazaire | Carcassonne Salade avec saucisse de Toulouse | Carcassonne La Cité by night | Carcassonne Full moon | Carcassonne La Cité by night | Carcassonne The city hall was dramatically lit | Carcassonne < Previous Day Next Day >
